What is the main purpose of a festival? The restoration, the music or both? It is the question that arises every summer when these massive events that take place in almost the entire country start. The promoters of this type of event ensure that the experience is much more than concerts, but consumer defense organizations criticize the fact that food and drink are prohibited from entering the venue when gastronomy is not the center of these activities.
And the same thing happens with amusement parks. Facua has just denounced the management company of Parque Warner in Madrid for preventing visitors from entering food and drink for “safety and hygiene reasons”. The organization considers that this justification is not consistent, taking into account that within the enclosure it is possible to buy food. As it has already done with various festivals, Facua has insisted that the main activity of these spaces is not catering, but rather the practice of recreational activities and games, and the use of attractions.
“This ban on access to the venue is not necessary for the correct achievement of the commercialized activity,” they say in a statement published this Friday. And they recall that article 82 of Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007, of November 16, states that “all those stipulations not individually negotiated and all those practices not expressly consented to that, contrary to the requirements of good faith, cause , to the detriment of the consumer and user, an important imbalance of the rights and obligations of the parties”.
Section 8 of the aforementioned standard establishes that “the basic rights of consumers and users are the protection of their legitimate economic and social interests, particularly against unfair commercial practices and the inclusion of abusive clauses in contracts.”
The consumer organization also refers to the report published by the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN) in 2016, related to this same matter, on that occasion due to the ban in cinemas.
In it, it was concluded that there was “an abusive clause”, because the consumer “is deprived of the main benefit, unjustifiably, having paid the ticket. And more taking into account that the basic activity of the company is not the sale and distribution of food and drink.
Facua also relies on article 37 of Law 17/1997, of July 4, on Public Shows and Recreational Activities. This states that “the exercise of the right of admission in an arbitrary or abusive manner” is a very serious offense in terms of public entertainment and recreational activities.
The organization requires the Madrid City Council to open a disciplinary file against the company Madrid Theme Park Management SLU for preventing access to Parque Warner and Parque Warner Beach in Madrid with food and drink from abroad, understanding that this measure violates current regulations on the matter. of consumption.
